Morley fire: Emergency service crews tackle house blaze

POLICE are investigating dual incidents in Morley in which they believe a man set fire to his house and then threatened staff at a butcher’s shop across the road with an axe and stole some meat.

Emergency services rushed to the scene about 8.50am on Saturday amid several reports of a house fire on Morley Drive. Soon after, police received a report of an armed robbery at a store in the Crimea Shopping Centre on the corner of Crimea Street and Morley Drive.

A man in his 40s was swiftly arrested outside the house on fire and is being questioned by police over both incidents. No one was injured in either incident, but police have not confirmed whether anybody else was inside the house at the time the fire was started.

A group gathered outside the property, believed to be family of the man, looked visibly upset.

The blaze, which is understood to have started on the ground floor, was quickly extinguished. A heavy police and Department of Fire and Emergency Services presence rushed to the chaotic scene near a busy intersection. A westbound lane of Morley Drive was closed, but has since reopened.